At the end of 2017, Synerlink upgrade team made a potentially game-changing observation while in an upgrade visit to Betouche, a dairy customer in Algeria.
In analizing the Algerian market, Synerlink experts noticed that the offerings of dairy products in large-volume cups is weak., With most of the competition, their packaging is unattractive, because it consists only of preformed cups that are filled manually by local workers.
BETOUCHE is a dynamic outsider in the very competitive Algerian market for dairy products. They decide to follow SYNERLINK’s advice and even ask them to develop the marketing design of the cup.
At the time, Betouche had an ARCIL A6 - 2x6 - 63x63 machine that had been sitting unused for three years in their yogurt packaging plant. SYNERLINK experts created a cup shape completely new to this market, compatible with the industrial productivity of the ARCIL thermoformer, and at the same time studied ways to modify the machine already on site.
The tooling designed for this new cup format was installed at the customer’s site by Synerlink technicians: a heating box for the plastic strip, a trimming tool, a mold, a lid sealing tool and a nozzle plate.
Mission accomplished! The machine, which formerly produced 75 g and 100 g cups, now makes 400 g thermoformed cups on a platform measuring 1x3 - 126x126. It runs at a rate of 28 strokes per minute and dispenses plain and flavored parboiled yogurt with no wave effect.
The customer BETOUCHE is very satisfied — they have a new production line for 15–20% of the price of a new FFS machine!
The cup is attractive and stands out on the shelf from the competition because of the quality packaging. And after just two weeks on the store shelves, this new yogurt’s sales success is the talk of the Algerian dairy markets!